“Are you here?” A voice asked in the darkness. It didn’t reply. “I’m not going to hurt you. You can sense that I’m not a threat,” The man moved closer and it didn’t make a sound. “I know that you’re scared. I know that you’re afraid,” This man chose his next words carefully. “And I know that you can talk. Come on. Talk to me,” The man stopped near it and crouched down, just able to make out its’ shape. It stayed silent for a few moments.

“I am afraid,” It said. “I don’t know where I am, and I don’t know who you are,” It stated clearly.

“I am Lukas Rain,” The man replied. “I am 3054 years old and you are in a tunnel below the city of Barbeth.”

“That means nothing to me,” It snapped at Lukas.

“Don’t lie to me,” Lukas snapped back at it. “I know that you escaped from the hospital. That tattoo on your arm reads Husk 959453-XRT. I know what you are.”

“You know nothing about me.”

“Don’t I?” Lukas said, moving closer to it. “I know you are not seen as human.”

“I am not a husk.”

“No, you’re not,” Lukas said with a hint of excitement in his voice. “You’re something different. You are conscious,” It looked up to see Lukas’s face almost touching its’ own. “What is your name?” Lukas asked it and it thought about this.

Lukas’s eyes never left it as it looked at the ground, thinking.

“Hugh,” He said in one breath. “My name is Hugh.”

“Ok Hugh,” Lukas said smiling, “My name is Lukas. It’s nice to meet you.” Lukas held out his hand towards Hugh and after a moment Hugh took it. Their hands shook and an instant bond of trust was formed between them.

“Come on,” Lukas announced harshly as he stood and moved away. Hugh followed him immediately. Lukas led him down a side tunnel that split off from the main passageway. A short way in they stopped by a large metal door that was fixed into the side of the tunnel. Lukas wrenched it open and they climbed inside. A dim electrical light lit Lukas and Hugh as they climbed in and sat on steel seats that jutted out of the wall.

Hugh lent towards Lukas and spoke slowly, but harshly, “What is this place?”

“This is the Undercity, and we are the Underlings. The Underling Project is dedicated to exposing the truth behind the society of the immortals. We expose the real truth to people who are willing to listen and those who we deem trustworthy. A section of the project is to take care of malfunctioned husks,” Lukas looked at Hugh. “Those people that created you. They are immortal and you are not meant to exist Hugh. You are meant to be an empty body to be used for medical use, nothing more.”

“What is this truth behind society, which you refuse to say you are part of?”

“I was the first to volunteer for the fresh start surgery, which is what they called it back in the year 3034.”

“And what year is it now?”

“6054.”

“Ok. So you are...”

“3,054 years old. Yes, we are immortal as well. Back in those days we did not know that this new surgery would lead to immortality, but then I don't know what they thought they could do with the technology. Everything was advancing so fast in those days. Society was on the brink of curing dementia, they were developing injections that restored spinal injuries and we were relying ever more on technology.”

“What was this surgery?”

“The fresh start surgery involved, and still involves, moving a person’s consciousness from one body to another.”

“That table I was on. They were going to cut into my back.”

“They were gaining access to your spinal canal. They insert a person’s brain in a new body by cutting open the lambdoid suture at the back of the skull, before threading the spinal cord down through the vertebrae.”

“The nerves grow back?”

“With a little help from a drug called Ramphamene. It speeds up the formation processes by 16 times it's normal rate. The central nervous tissue will interconnect with surrounding tissues and form all the blood vessels and nerve connections that are needed.”

“How do you know so much about the surgery?”

“I was working as a cleaner in the New Life Medical Centre before the operation took place. My life had been a mess and at that point I was in desperation. They were working on growing full sized human bodies from samples but they couldn't quite do it, no matter how hard they tried. So they began to grow test tube humans from living children, some were children who had been lost while others they physically stole themselves. It worked and although they had humans: these were conscious, living, thinking human beings and they couldn't rip them apart for their organs. The staff refused to.

The people in charge of the centre were malicious and manipulative, they managed to convince the staff to use the children for experiments and untested procedures. It was then that the real horrors began. The children became flesh, nothing but flesh for the experiments,” Lukas paused, tears forming in his eyes. “They began working on the issue on consciousness, how to keep the body but remove conscious thoughts and the sense of self. To do this they created a poison to kill off the nervous system. The children screamed day and night as their own bodies sized up in pain, because of the poison. Their pain became my pain and agony gripped them, forcing their bodies to writhe and contort in the most horrific of ways until blood poured from their eyes and soaked their skin. The worst part is that the poison worked and their agony became their humanity: their brains shrunk and like zombies they slowly became nothing but empty shells. Finally the Medical Centre had the genes they needed, that would create human shells. These shells that had no consciousness, just the organs that would be used to fix other humans.”

“If you knew this,” Hugh said slowly. “Why did you have the operation?”

“I don't know,” Lukas said as he stood, and turned to face the wall away from Hugh. He rested his hands on the wall above him and let his head hang loose. “Maybe it was the thought that it would go wrong, and that I would die. Or maybe it was the guilt and the shame that I felt for watching the children die while doing nothing to help them. Or maybe it was the desperation, the absolute desperation for death and escape. Or maybe it was the mental and physical force, or the blackmail or the loaded gun that was pressed firmly into the side of my forehead that made me say yes!” Lukas was staring directly at Hugh now with fire in his eyes that could have burnt out the sun. Hugh said nothing, instead watching was Lukas stumble away from him. “Or maybe it was all those things and the war,” Lukas closed his eyes and whispered, “Maybe it was the war.”

“The war?” Hugh asked.

Silence followed.

“The world had become deranged,” Lukas said at length. “Men attacked their neighbours on the streets because of blind racism and religious hate. Gangs and mobsters ran the cities because the world's governments had given up. Rife with corruption the authorities fell and became the worst of it all. America attacked Russia and all hell broke loose. China invaded North Korea and religion went back into the dark ages with all religious teachers and followers tearing each other apart in the name of their Gods. World War 3 we call it now. The devastating war that, among many political battles, wiped humanity from this earth,” Hugh sat in silence as Lukas continued. “That's where new life came in. It offered a way out, a new start, for a large sum of money of course. People who bought into the scheme had no idea where the husks came from but they didn't care. They still don’t,” Lukas’s voice was horse and Hugh began to understand his hatred of the outside world.

“And there I was. The year was 3126 and I was asleep in a new body, locked away in a secret facility on the ocean floor to awake in 400 years. When I did awake the world was new. It was ravaged and ransacked, but new. We rebuilt it, all 50,000 of us who had chosen to have this new life. Those who know the reality of the husks were heavily bribed to work in medical facilities and were given threats as to what would happen to us if we ever reveal what we know.”

“That’s why none knows about the husks.”

“Exactly, but the history behind the husks wasn’t the only problem. The people in charge soon realised the major issue of death. None was going to die, at least not with the new husks. The people in charge used persuasion to poison people's minds, they made pregnancy and child birth seem like a devastating and deadly illness: this resulted in less children being born, until 3854 when the last child was born and there have been no children since. They used the same persuasion techniques to force those who knew the true nature of the husks, but worked outside of medical facilities, to forget the truth. But there are some who remember,” Lukas then looked at the floor in shame.

“The Underlings,” Hugh stated. “They remember.”

“Yes, we remember. We all remember, or at least, we all understand. There have been no children in 2,200 years Hugh, but you are something new. You are a husk that went wrong, you grew to have a brain and a central nervous system. You are conscious, and therefore you are not a husk,” Lukas looked up to see Hughs’ eyes light up.

“How do they work? The husks? How are you still conscious if you have a new body?” Hugh asked.

“A vital part in the religious disagreement that began World War 3 was the scientific discovery of the soul, or more accurately: the source of human consciousness. The discovery that consciousness was held within the brain and spinal cord was developed using lots of research and was only released to the public after years of being held within trusted political groups. This sparked huge disagreements between religious groups, the public and governments. The advancing technology soon allowed people with spinal injuries to be completely cured and therefore paved the way for transplants of the central nervous system.”

“So if you have a brain and spinal cord, you are conscious?”

“Essentially yes.”

“That’s why the husks are empty, they are not conscious. They have no spinal cord.”

“But you do Hugh. You are conscious. You are, conscious,” Lukas stared at Hugh with a light in his eyes. Hugh was quiet before speaking once more.

“Why was it so painful?”

“What?”

“Agony. Most of what I can remember is agony. Only ever agony. Is it not agony for you?”

“You are different Hugh. I do not know how you are here and I cannot fathom how hard it must have been for you.”

“I am something new,” Hugh said before pausing. Lukas nodded and gave him a tap on the shoulder.

“I’ll show you around.”